Tennis fans received sobering news on Thursday as 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal announced he will miss this year’s Roland Garros event as he continues to deal with a lingering hip injury.
“I was even working as much as possible every single day for the last four months. It has been very difficult months because we were not able to find the solution to the problem that I had in Australia,” said Nadal. “Today, I’m still in a position that I am not able to feel that I am ready to compete at the standards that I need to be at to play at Roland Garros.”
This marks the first time since 2004 that Nadal will not play at the French Open. He is 112-3 all-time in Paris, which includes those 14 titles.
He also indicated that 2024 could be his final year competing on the professional tour.
“I don’t know, I am not the guy who likes to predict a lot the future, so I’m just following my personal feelings and just following what I really believe is the right thing to do for my body and for my personal happiness now,” said Nadal. “I can’t say 100 percent that it’s going to be like this because you never know what can happen. But my idea and my motivation is to try to enjoy and try to say goodbye to all the tournaments that have been important for me in my tennis career during next year and just try to enjoy that.”
